The shadows of other people do not show this effect. The head of the observer’s shadow, or the more distant shadow of an aeroplane on cloud below is often surrounded by a bright glow called the glory. Atmospheric effects on the clouds seen from an aircraft flying above them. FogbowĪ fogbow is formed in exactly the same way as a rainbow, but the colours overlap in the tiny droplets of water in fog and convert the rainbow back to a colourless bow. If the crystals are orientated in exactly the right way they can give rise to brilliant halos. On a sunny day these catch the sunlight and shine like a sprinkling of diamonds in the sky, hence the name diamond dust. The air temperature in Antarctica is often low enough for water vapour to condense directly out of the atmosphere and form tiny ice crystals which then fall. These shades are called the corona, and the physics is similar to that seen when a drop of oil falls onto the surface of a puddle. Pastel colours in clouds close to the Sun or Moon reveal the presence of water droplets in the cloud. Many other hazardous meteorological phenomena accompany a thunderstorm: turbulence, strong wind, wind shear, strong updrafts and downdrafts, icing, electrical discharge, intense precipitation (rain, snow or hail), microbursts, gust fronts and funnel clouds.īecause of their significance for flight safety, the Aeronautical Meteorology Service pays special attention to thunderstorms by forecasting their formation and disappearance and providing a range of information for users.Parhelia over a camp site on the Evans Ice Stream Corona They are most often formed overland in the summer and can grow up to 15 km in height, making flying difficult and dangerous, so pilots usually avoid them. It can be caused by a single cloud or a cluster of clouds, which are called cumulonimbus clouds. It is also dangerous for aircraft in the take-off or landing phase, but also for aircraft in the horizontal flight phase. It poses a danger above, below, beside and in the thundercloud itself. This can cause significant problems in heavily congested airspace or at large airports, mainly due to flight delays.ĭue to the enormous energy it releases and the accompanying meteorological phenomena, a thunderstorm is considered to be the most dangerous meteorological phenomenon for aviation. Namely, in low visibility conditions, separation standards between aircraft are increased for safety reasons and thus the capacity is reduced. But fog can still pose a problem even if the safety requirements are met. If all of the safety requirements are not met, flight operations can be suspended due to fog. Meteorologists regularly forecast it and thus warn of possible problems for regular air traffic. However, at airports, fog is the most significant issue. Of course, all safety requirements must be met for such aircraft operations – there has to be adequate ground-based and airborne radio navigation and other equipment, and the flight crew has to be adequately trained. It means flying under instrument flight rules when various radio navigation aids are used for all phases of flight, by means of which the aircraft can be operated even in poor visibility conditions of less than 50 meters. In terms of safety, today the issue of flying in low visibility conditions is mostly solved by technology. In fact, it often means flying blind using navigational aids. The Boeing 747 achieved a speed of 1327 km/h flying in a jet stream and arrived in 4 hours and 56 minutes, even 80 minutes ahead of schedule.įlying through clouds and fog is considered flying in low visibility conditions. On February 12, 2020, a British Airways airplane set a record for the fastest flight from New York to London for aircraft flying below the speed of sound. When calculating the route, modern airlines take into account wind forecasts because this approach can significantly reduce flight duration and costs. However, it can also be useful if flying with the wind in a jet stream because the aircraft accelerates. Depending on the position and direction of the jet stream, strong wind can cause problems if it is a headwind because it slows down the aircraft. Strong wind also occurs at high altitudes and is associated with jet streams. Therefore, meteorologists pay special attention to such situations, forecast them and forward the information to users. That sometimes happens at Dubrovnik and Rijeka airports during the bora. If the wind is so strong that it also causes strong turbulence, an additional problem arises, making it quite difficult to stabilize the aircraft to land safely. In such situations, it is very difficult to align the aircraft with the runway on landing, so pilots often have to make another landing attempt. Strong surface wind is especially dangerous during landing if it is a so-called crosswind – wind perpendicular to the direction of the aircraft.
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